Veteran sports writer Jim Utter covers NASCAR for The Charlotte Observer and its racing site, ThatsRacin.com. In this space, Jim writes about all things NASCAR and other forms of racing which may also be relevant ... or not.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Dale Junior and Kyle Busch can reach NASCAR milestones this weekend

BRISTOL, Tenn. - Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are on the verge of reaching a pair of significant NASCAR milestones this weekend.If he can lead at least 140 laps in Sunday’s FoodCity
500 – something he’s done four times previously – Busch will become the 15th
driver in Sprint Cup Series history to cross the 10,000 laps led threshold for
his career.“There’s a lot of things that I want to accomplish still that I
haven’t,” said Busch, who has five Cup series victories at BristolMotor
Speedway. Whatever things come along the way that we’re able to accomplish is
awesome – it’s fun.“It means you are a namesake in the sport and that hopefully
things continue to go down that path.”Earnhardt can join an even more exclusive club on Sunday should
he finish first or second. Only one other driver in Cup history – Richard Petty
– has finished second or higher in the first four races of the season (He did
so in 1974). Earnhardt has finished first, second and second in the first three
races. “Anytime you’ve done anything that Richard has done and you put
yourself in the conversation with him to do with any statistic, it’s a pretty
awesome accomplishment,” Earnhardt said. “He’s such a fixture in the sport
still today.”